Tesla has been moving around a lot of Bitcoin to a new wallet, a first for the automaker who first cot into crypto a few years ago before getting cold feet.
What does this mean? Probably not much.
Tesla is among the few large public companies that invested some of their cash into cryptocurrency.
Early in 2021, Tesla invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. Shortly after, the automaker started accepting the cryptocurrency as payment on new vehicles.
However, a few days later, Tesla took a step back with crypto by removing the Bitcoin payment option. The company noted concerns over the energy needs of the Bitcoin network:
Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.
This is a concern that many Tesla community members shared when Tesla first announced its Bitcoin investment, and many were angered by the fact that the company didn’t think about it in the first place.
At the time, Tesla noted that they were not selling their stake in Bitcoin and that they planned to resume taking Bitcoin payments once the network showed a higher mix of renewable energy.
Last year, Tesla made some moves that pointed to starting to take Bitcoin payments again, but it has yet to happen.
A year after the initial investment, Tesla’s Bitcoin holding increased to $2 billion, but the cryptocurrency lost a lot of its value in 2022 and the automaker’s position suffered – though the automaker also divested about 75% of its Bitcoin position during that time.
Tesla reported over $1.2 billion in proceeds from selling Bitcoins, but the automaker still sits on a good amount.
Bitcoin Treasuries reports that Tesla is the company with the fourth largest Bitcoin holding with 9,720 Bitcoins – even ahead of Coinbase.
Now, over the last few hours, Tesla has moved nearly all of its bitcoins into new unknown wallets.
The reason behind the move is unclear.
The accounting and tax rules regarding cryptocurrencies are constantly evolving and therefore, Tesla might be moving things around in preparation for that.
The crypto world is already buzzing about whether this means that Tesla is going to sell its Bitcoin or buy more, but there’s no clear evidence pointing either way so far.
Again, it’s possible that Tesla is also planning to start accepting crypto payments for its vehicles, as evidenced in its software last year.
This story is still developing. Refresh for more details.
If you have any idea why Tesla is moving around its bitcoins, let us know your theories in the comment section below.
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